Thomas E. Hogan, senior vice president of sales at Siebel Systems, resigned to take the president/CEO position at Vignette Corp. after the market closed Monday, drawing a negative reaction from Wall Street analysts.
Siebel stock prices dipped $3 7/8, or 11.5 percent, to $29 3/4 yesterday.
Credit Suisse First Boston also said it was cutting the software maker's 2001 and 2002 earnings estimates. Analyst Brent Thill slashed his earnings per share estimate for 2001 to 65 cents from 72 cents and to 80 cents from 90 cents for 2002. Merrill Lynch also downgraded the stock to neutral from accumulate.
“It's interesting that Siebel uses Vignette to run their Web site,” said Dana Serman, an analyst at brokerage firm Lazard Freres.
Hogan assumes immediate responsibility for worldwide operations at Vignette, including sales, marketing, support, services and product development.
At Siebel, Hogan was responsible for all of the company's license revenue through all distribution channels.
Siebel eBusiness Applications allow organizations to create a single source of customer information that makes it easier to sell to, market to and service customers across multiple channels, including the Web, call centers, field, resellers, retail and dealer networks.
